Day 12

It is my last day in Vietnam. There was a soccer and basketball game scheduled for us to start the day. Still half asleep, I ate a small breakfast and got on the bus to head to the stadium. The first game we played was the soccer game. We began stretching to prepare for the game when some music came on. It was a "surprise" flash mob. It was a nice fun dance to get everyone's spirit up for a nice, friendly competition at what felt early in the morning. Mike made me the captain of the soccer team, but I think it was because I was the first one to kick the ball when warming up. I scored a goal off a header, but in the end I am pretty sure we lost. Then, we got a nice five minute break before jumping right in to a game of basketball. Our basketball game plan was simple, get the ball to Seth. He towered over everyone. I think everyone was still tired from the soccer game, so we may not have performed our best. While I do not know the score, I cannot imagine we won. After the games, we took a lot of pictures and exchanged gifts. I was very thankful for everything I received; they will become very precious memories. After some goodbyes, we went back to the hotel and I began to pack.  I took a break from packing to go to a coffee shop. I was very sleepy so I had another cup of the strong Vietnamese coffee. It was just what I needed to keep me going. I went back to the hotel after coffee, and I finished packing before dinner. Tonight, we had dinner on a boat to wrap up the trip. After dinner, the boat set sail. We got to see the skyline of Ho Chi Minh City for what probably would be the last time. The sight was breathtaking. I must have taken thirty picture of the skyline to get a picture that would do it justice but each time I felt like nothing could compare to actually standing on the boat looking out over the city.

After dinner, it was already late and we had to be ready to leave at 3am. I did not see any sense in going to bed; I could sleep the whole way home. I stayed up with Conor, D, and Krystal. The time passed quickly to 3am and we all gathered in the lobby to leave. The trip had come to an end, except for the next day and a half of traveling. I am truly happy that I ended up in Vietnam; I do not think I would have had such a rewarding trip anywhere else in the world. I met people I could never forget, and I learned and saw more than I ever thought I would. This is a trip I will always remember.

Day 11

Today was our last day at UEF. It felt kind of weird knowing I would never come back after coming everyday for the last two weeks. Our last language lesson was fun. It was a review of everything that we had learned over or time here. There was a number of games. I was not totally sure if we were being scored on accuracy, speed or a combination of the two, but I think my team won the first game, just saying. After our final language lesson, we had our third and final culture lesson. The teacher enlightened us to the hidden meanings behind some Vietnamese art. He also talk about the importance of Yin and Yang in everything. I found it interesting that the direction one's house points could have profound effects on the cost of the home. As a going away present, we all got grasshoppers and a flower made from palms. I liked them a lot, but I was sad because they would not make it through customs; I would have loved to take it home. At lunch, it was announced that the company were cancelled because of the China riots going on in the area, so we had plenty of time in the afternoon. With my free time, I wrote some postcards that I promised to people at home and i went to the post office to mail, and from there I went to the market to pick up some last minute souvenirs. On the walk back to the hotel from the market, I got a taste of monsoon season. It began to pour all of a sudden and I was soaked almost immediately. I got back, dried off, and changed for dinner. I went to a stand and got some kind of corn dish as my last meal. It was very good. Then a group of us wondered to the Saigon River. I have grown to love the river while I was here. It was the most peaceful place I found in Vietnam. I am not as excited as I thought I would be to go home, and I had such a great time here; I wish I could stay a while longer.

Day 10

We started the day by visiting the Saigon Newport Corporation. It is a huge port that does nearly 50% of all the imports/exports nationwide. They had big cranes moving huge, cargo crates into neat stacks.With a three star general directing all the traffic in and out of the port. I thought it was a very intriguing sight to see the thousands of containers and thinking they know what is in each container, when they came into the port, when they need to leave, and what they are leaving on. A real feat of organization.

Just some of the crates they were handling

 After the port, we went back to the hotel for a short break before heading to the War Remnants museum. We had a short lesson on the development of the name of museum over the years.  Originally, the name of the museum was called "The Museum of American War Crimes." Some of the exhibits were a bit disturbing. There were pictures of massacres and bodies on the ground. The most moving pictures, or at least to me, were the picture of the after effects of Agent Orange. After walking around the museum for a while and taking it all in, it was time to walk back to the hotel. It was not long after getting back that I headed to a coffee shop with a few other students. I had a cup of Vietnamese coffee. It was served brewing over a small cup, and it could not have been more than a shot of coffee. I remember thinking I could drink three or four of these, but after I finished it, I felt like I could stay up for days. I was wired; I think it was the strongest cup of coffee I have ever had. The coffee shop was a lot of fun. I had my coffee and we all talked and played Jenga. After the coffee shop, we headed out to eat with a woman that coached Seth's mom in basketball. She was a very friendly lady. She took us to a restaurant where you could walk around and point out the foods that you wanted to eat and they would bring them to the table. I had some tasty spring rolls. After dinner, some of us went to a bowling alley. I swear I used to be good at bowling, but I was just not on my game tonight. I think I rolled more gutter balls than anything, but I still had plenty of fun. We only played one game before going to a venue with live music. Everyone listened to some music and had a good time. It was another full day in Vietnam.

Day 9

Today was a short day. I had a small breakfast at the hotel before a quick venture out with Brittany to find some street food as a supplement to the light breakfast. Afterwards, we got on the bus and headed to UEF for another language and culture lesson. The culture lesson focused on the on the different ethic groups from the different regions of Vietnam. I found it interesting how outside influence and the lay of the land shaped these different ethnic groups. After the culture lesson, we had another language lesson. This language was especially fun because it had games. Personally, I have always been competitive, so games are definitely a good way for me to learn. I think everyone won because we all got to learn a little Vietnamese, or at least that is what I am going with because my team lost. During lunch, it was announced that the company visit for today was cancelled because everyone was obviously tired from a long week and a half. I used my free time in the afternoon to catch up on some sleep and some writing. For dinner, some of us went to the mall for a quick meal. I honestly wish I would have searched out a new restaurant. Also, later in the night I saw city hall and a statue of Uncle Ho. They both looked beautiful lit up at night.

Uncle Ho with City hall in the background

Day 8

With the success of venturing for breakfast yesterday that became the plan today. Conor and I skipped breakfast at the hotel to find something new to eat. We found some kind of corn dish with fried garlic and sugar on top, and a sandwich. We stopped in a small coffee shop to enjoy our food. It was all very good. Afterwards, we headed to a branch campus of UEF for a language lesson on bargaining before heading to the Ben Thanh market. The stand owners could smell the tourist on me and were determined to pull me into their stands. I was able to work my ways through all of them to find cool little souvenirs to take home and give to friends and family. After the market, some of us headed to a small soup place across the street. I had a very good bowl of pho before walking back to the hotel to set my things down before heading to the Buddhist pagoda. The first thing we saw at the pagoda was a kind of exhibit on these rocks that I remember hearing took 20 year to collect. These rocks were unaltered by human hands, a sort of natural art. I had fun looking at them and trying to find what i thought they could represent or embody, and I tried to see what the collector deemed them in theirs names like "infinite universe." After this, we were lead through the pagoda. We took off our shoes and walked into the first room that contained a huge, awe-inspiring Buddha.

Here is the Buddha statue

I donated some money and got a stick of incense to burn. We continued the tour through the pagoda we saw rooms dedicated to the martyrs from this temple and rooms filed with relics. From the pagoda, we walked to the sight of where the monk Thich Quáng Đức burned alive in 1963. There were two sites deicated to him on two separate corners of the square. There was a newer larger one with a mural behind it that painted the scene of the burning. It was a powerful scene of police beating women and monks.

a portion of the mural

 After taking all of the site in, we walked back to the hotel and got ourselves ready for dinner. I went to a shellfish restaurant. Everything was so delicious and fresh, so much so that you could see it alive right before it was brought to the table. After dinner we went back to the hotel for a minute before exploring the city briefly. All in all, it was another great day. The market reminded me of something i would see Anthony Bourdain or Andrew Zimmerman would do, which I liked because shows like theirs excite me to travel. The pagoda was also interesting to see a place that fostered arguably the most memorable protesters of the war, and the corner where Thich Quáng Đức burned himself alive was a powerful historical site. 

Day 7

Today started a little differently. I wanted to break it up a little and in order to do so, I skipped the breakfast at the hotel and found something new. Lucky, my journey to find something new lasted about 7 steps. I walked up to the food stand right out side of the hotel to see what might interest me as breakfast. I got a sandwich. I had the choice of meat or eggs, and I chose meat. It was delicious, and it has been right under my nose this whole time. Today was probably our longest bus ride to what I will refer to as big Jesus and the beach. Our first stop was big Jesus. Tin said, "we only have an hour here." I brushed it off because I did not understand the work that had to be put in to see big Jesus. I thought it was going to be a five minute walk, see big Jesus, take a few pictures, and be on our merry way. I guess it never clicked that I might have to climb up the hill; I guess I thought I might just be able to float up by some miracle, after all this is big Jesus. It turns out I could not get so lucky, so we all began the hike up the steps to big Jesus. Just as the steps and sun were about to get to me, over the set of stair peek the large face of Jesus himself. Once we got up there big Jesus was a very interesting site we took some pictures, and had the opportunity to go to the top of big Jesus. The line to the top of big Jesus was long, but I at this point i had go to far to turn back now. I was going to the top. the view from the top of big Jesus was incredible.

This is the view from big Jesus

This here is my friend big Jesus

   From big Jesus, we headed to lunch. This place was a little fancier, or at least fancier than I felt being dressed for the beach and being drench in sweat from a long hike up to Jesus. I quickly got over these feelings when they brought out the food. It was all very good and I had a large meal for plenty of energy to burn at the beach. I was very ready for the beach. Today was like any other day in Vietnam, HOT. We all set or things up under the umbrella and headed right for the water. The water was warm but was a great relief from the heat. After floating in the small waves for a minute, we got to observe on of my favorite beach game from the locals, sand balls. I had some flash backs of my youth. I have three brothers, and as a result, I have learned to make a pretty solid sand ball over the years. It is all in the flick of the wrist. We had a little sand ball fight; I think Abe started it. Also, I threw D into the water in his clothes. D if you are reading this, I am sorry, but it was a little funny. The beach was a lot of fun, but it was time to go. I was worn from a full day and the sun, so I slept on the way back. I woke up when we puled into a market for a bathroom break. I got out and looked around. Dan and I got some fruit for the rest of the ride back, some jack fruit and some "strawberries." They were very tasty. When we got back we had our suits adjusted. Although my suit only had one sleeve, I liked the look of it. Afterwards, we went out for a quick dinner because it was late, and then just talked to Atharva until it was time to go to sleep. 

Day 6

Today, I am 19. It is my birthday. I am in a happier disposition this morning, but I feel the same. Today, we are going to the Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels were far away, and the long bus ride was a good time for a nap. I woke up as we pulled into the site; we all put on our sun screen and bug spray preparing for the trek into the trees. Well, it wasn't much of a trek; it was a short walk down a path to a pavilion where we watched a video on the history of the Cu Chi tunnels. The video was made in 1967 or 1969, but I cannot quite remember which. Either way, it was made in the middle of the war, and it was evident. It was about how everyone came together to fight the "American Devil," which kind of hurt my feelings , but then again, I guess I cannot blame them. After the video, we began venturing through the tunnels. Our guide told us that the tunnels were made large for tourists, which is pretty insane considering how small they still were. We got the importunity to go in an originally sized door. It was smaller than an air vent in a house and a tight squeeze for everyone who went down. There was not a lot of room in the tunnels; all you could really do is waddle through. The thought of living in these tunnels was baffling to me. The claustrophobia inducing size of the tunnels was not that bad; it was more of the little things down there with you that got to me. All kinds of spiders and bats that would fly or scurry past you as you walked through were a little frightening. After crawling through the tunnels, we went to eat on a boat. I really liked watching the water flow as we ate.

Here is a nice little picture of the view from the boat

After lunch, it was time for the long ride home. I think I slept the whole way back too. I got back and  wrote my journal until dinner. I went out to dinner and ordered rice and a delicious sampling of toppings. 

This is a picture of dinner

After dinner, I returned to the hotel and got cleaned up, which was far over due. Then, I went out to celebrate my birthday at a little place ran by our friends at Glass Egg. I never thought I would spend my birthday crawling around underground but I enjoyed it.

Day 5

I started the day with the same standard routine. Then we went to UEF for a lesson on the history of the Mekong River Delta. We had an older professor, and I liked him a lot. He seemed to be a wise and experienced man, and I enjoyed listening to him. After the this lesson, we took a long break because some students want to get fitted suits. I got fitted for a gray suit and i was really excited to see how it was going to turn out; I have never before been fitted like this. After the fitting, we went to the library to play some games. I was on team "winners," which in no way foreshadowed our performance. Our slogan was "we are better than you...and we know it," and once again not completely accurate. The first game we played was a guessing game where you had to put your hands into ice water, pick out a fruit, describe it to your partner and guess. Team winners had minimal time because Garrett cheated, but it's okay. The second game was  a passing of an eggplant between your legs down a row of your team. Team winners actually won this one but I feel like I got a little to close to Garrett in the process. Last was a kind of Vietnamese telephone were we took a phrase off a little card and passed it down the line much like an eggplant. We got a tough one. I think team Winners took second place, which isn't last so I can't complain much. Everyone still got a nice bag of candy and fruit. Then we all did the chicken dance and the Macarena, or maybe we did that before. Tonight we went for a type of pancake that the teacher recommended that we get. It was very thin and filled with duck. I wrapped pieces of the pancake in pieces of fresh lettuce. I was very good. Since we were warned not to ride motorbikes in the meetings before hand, when I was asked if I would like to go for a ride I said no. But if i rode one, which i didn't, I would probably say it was a little terrifying at first because you come close to colliding to almost everything else on the road at some point. Remember this is all speculation. We journeyed to a dessert place where we sat on little plastic tables and tasted an assortment of "sweet soups." It was like nothing I have ever had before but I enjoyed it.  After the sweet soup, we didn't ride motor bikes to the outside of town to see a beautiful view of the city.

This is what the view would look like if we rode there

We went to one other spot to take in the view of the city. It truly was beautiful. Lastly, we didn't attempt to ride the motorbike in a small circle. It was another great day in Vietnam.

Day 4

I have fallen into a morning routine, same as yesterday. Today, we went to UEF. First, we had a lecture on the history and culture of Vietnam. The importance of the buffalo was stressed in the lecture because cows cannot be used to plow rice fields because the low lands are to wet for them. we had another language lesson today. I can pretty confidently say Vietnamese is not my language. I was having a hard time with correctly pronouncing words. The company that we visited today was Glass Egg. They make graphics for video games. They got their start by making cars and now are moving into the mobile game market. The company felt more relaxed than the others. I think it would be an interesting place to work. Walking through the office, I could see the programmers writing codes in C++ syntax. I thought that was interesting because I could recognize the purpose of some of the lines, but a lot of it was far beyond the scope of what we learned in Engr 12.

The view from Glass Egg

 I was very excited for dinner tonight. The idea was to walk until something looked good, and it did not take long. A group of us walked what could not have been more than 3 blocks to the right of the hotel before we were lured in by the smoky scent of barbeque. We could see meat cooking on the grill and spinning on skewers. The waiter unfolded tables for us on the sidewalk. I had the pigeon and it was delicious. I was very happy with the restaurant we had chosen. After dinner we went to a little place called Broma. It sat beneath the tallest building in Ho Chi Minh City. It was lite up and contrasted beautifully with the black Vietnamese sky. We had a fun night just talking and getting to know everyone a little better. It was another great day in Vietnam.

Day 3

Today started like any other day. I got up, took a shower, and headed down to the lobby to have breakfast. We did not go to UEF today, but we started the day by going to Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park. VSIP reminded me greatly of Phu My Hung. It was an industrial park that offered many benefits to businesses that established themselves within the park. I thought it was a good idea to help growth there. Within the park was the second company that we would be visiting that day, II-VI. II-VI was the company I did my group presented on prior to leaving. I know I am a nerd, but I loved II-VI. Probably my favorite company visit of the whole trip. Seeing the processes and having at least some understanding of the science that went into it was exciting to me. The big bubbling electro-chemistry tanks were cool because we had just learned about them in Chem 2. All the oxidation and reduction, pretty neat.

Look at all the science

After II-VI, we went out to lunch and we visited a porcelain shop. They had lots of little interesting figurines, a good spot from some trinkets for people. That was the end of the structured part of the day, so we headed back to the hotel. For dinner this night, we went to a French restaurant. The food was pretty good, but I wanted some more authentic Vietnamese food. After dinner, we went to a karaoke place. It was King Karaoke, and their motto was "Keep Impression Never Gone," which i thought was funny. We had a good time and sang some songs, but I think everyone was a little tired. It was a fairly early night comparatively, but all in all it was a good day.

Day 2

After breakfast at the hotel, everybody went to UEF for a lecture on the development of Ho Chi Minh City. I learned a lot about the advancements made by HCMC in the last few decades about the obstacles that must be overcome in the near future. HCMC is the economic center of Vietnam, and its GDP is expanding at a much greater rate than the country's as a whole. After the lecture on economic development, we had another language lesson. Again, the student that was helping me today was Julia. She was very helpful with the lesson, she even taught me a couple words that I should be more careful who I say them around. Also, in class we had to go through the scenario of meeting a new person. My partner was Uma , and you could say we did well...  you'd be wrong, but you could say it. To me it seemed to be a fairly standard script we had to go through, and Uma decided to change it up on me and cut a few of the parts out. I guess I could have been listening better, but I wasn't. As a result I responded totally inappropriately. At least everyone got a good chuckle out of it. I've been told before that when having a conversation with someone most people are more concerned with what they will say next than what the other person is saying. I guess I was guilty of that and I should probably work on that. We had lunch at the canteen, and started our way to the company we would be visiting that day, Phu My Hung. Phu My Hung is an industrial park and their goal is to construct a perfect utopian city in accordance with their "master plan." They had a very futuristic and interesting presentation, but it kind of gave me the creeps. First, I always get skeptical when I am being targeted. Little things of the presentation indicated that it was made for an American audience, like the use of the term "Vietnam War" instead of "American War." Also, the ideal of a utopia always raises red flags with me. The idea of living in a place that "has everything one could ever need, with no need to leave for any reason" makes me a little uneasy. This being said I think with the population growth the need to develop southward will be needed, and I loved the idea of the competition that was held for the best city plan for this expansion. After a brief history of Phu My Hung, we made it into a room, and we could so out the window the large inflatable duck who recently made an appearance in Pittsburgh, so a picture was needed.

A lot of pictures were taken in the room and the tour concluded. Now, it was time for us to return to the hotel. We later went out to dinner with the students from UEF. Everything was delicious, and I had my first taste of Pho in Vietnam, which I was looking forward to. After dinner we went out to do some group bonding. I had a very fun and interesting second day in Vietnam.
 

Day 1

Today was the first, real day in Vietnam. We all started with a breakfast at the hotel. All the food was delicious. I tried various dumplings and noodles, but my favorite thing was the coffee. It is stronger than the coffee and home and its mixed with condensed milk. Then after breakfast, everyone got on to the bus and headed to UEF to meet the students that will be spending the next weeks with and to have a welcoming ceremony.  The first person I met was named Julia. I was immediately impressed by her English. She spoke very clearly and was able to understand very well. She seemed cool; we made small talk until the beginning of the welcoming. The first thing they did was a traditional dance. After the dance a girl came to sing to us. She wanted everyone to join in and as she was walking between the desks with an extra microphone to find someone to help her sing, I kept my head low and broke eye contact because I did not know the words to the song. Luckily, she walked up to Abe and put the microphone in his hand. Like me, Abe did not know the words either, which was funny. After this welcome, we had our first language lessons. We started by learning all the tones and vowels of the language. I was having a little bit of a hard time getting all of them. After he language, we had lunch at the canteen in at the school. Everything they served us was very good. After lunch we headed to the US consulate for a little history lesson on the attack on the former embassy and to talk with some of the workers. After the consulate we went to dinner as a group at Wrap it or Roll it. We got to wrap our own spring rolls. Tin Tin said i was the best wrapper. It was all very good, and we all had fun. After dinner the whole group went out to bond on the first night. It started slow but I feel like it ended well. It was a good first day and I am excited to see what tomorrow will hold.